MUST's for a Mac

[owaters]

I have just purchased a brand new Aluminum 15" G4 1.25Mhz and 20GB iPod and I'm looking for suggestions of mainly freeware and hardware which is highly recommended.

Any suggestions?

[DeltaMac]

software and hardware for what purposes - what do you need?

[Urbansory]

I think everyone has apps that they use on the regular, that are crucial to their work flow but go unnoticed.

CDFinder (shareware)
MaxMenus (shareware)
AIM (I can't stand iCrap(aka iChat) that is brush metal & aqua gone too damn far)
M-Beat
MPlayer
Cocktail use to be, i made my own Applescripts to do my daily/weekly/monthly and other tasks

I guess thats it for me

[DeltaMac]

That's where the difference can be, I have no use for these mentioned items, except MPlayer, and Cocktail (which is no longer shareware, use it once and then have to buy it; OnyX does the same for free, but an Applescript collection is great too for system maintenance.)
GraphicsConvertor (can be used free, but buy it)

owaters, still be helpful to know what you're needing, otherwise a long-winded list may show up here.

[ApeintheShell]

Wiretap
MSN, iChat or Adium
Corel Painter 8
Camino
Goldberg(not associated with the no sell wresler)
Mac Journal
X-Chat Aqua (irc client)

[dave17lax]

Hardware:

griffin powermate

http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate/# (silver is better imho)

wacom graphire (or other tablet)

http://www.wacom.com/graphire/4x5.cfm is the cheap version

Those are 2 fun toys, not free but sub-$100. A decent digicam would also be good but is obviously more costly.

[edX]

must have for me -

Default Folder X
Graphic Converter
Maintain Your Mac (like cocktail but still free)
iCab - (better graphics download management than safari)
an app for multiple docks - i use dockswitcher and really like the menu bar directory that it adds so i don't even bother to switch docks most of the time.
Diskwarrior - because disk utility only fixes so much.
a defragmentation app - techtoolpro, plus optimizer or drive10 (this last one is really slow for this)
i'm also a big fan of Appleworks
every other 'must have' app for me (that i can think of right now) is apple software. but i'll admit that toast has come in pretty handy as well. maybe not 'must have', but nice to have.

and i agree with the wacom graphire tablet for hardware. best 'thing' i've ever bought for my mac.

[Randman]

Cocktail
Synergy
Transparent Dock
Rocket Launcher
Pod Manager (great for pulling back songs from your iPod back to your hard drive)
Drag 'N Tooth (great for bluetooth usages, which I seem to use more and more with my Nokia 3650 and my pda)
A Vaja leather case for your iPod, the i-Volution of the like (a little pricey, but well worth it).
Delocalizer (in case you forget to not install foreign language packs during downloads)
Plasma Tunnel, ok, so screen savers aren't a big deal these days, but Plasma is free and a nice screen saver